Research Week #1: The Dark Side

Research Week - Dream World Edition!
Duration: April 30th - May 14thApproved by Tobes and Omicron.​

Research Week looks to investigate Pokemon that have potential in Dream World, be it in stats, movepool, or supporting their team, to serve as an innovative choice in today's metagame. These are Pokemon that, for the most part, remain relatively untested. I've selected three Pokemon I feel, with help from everyone else, could see the rise of new and powerful sets, or the fulfilment of a particular niche. Perhaps the title is a bit of a misnomer; in fact, this installment (and likely future ones) of Research Week will continue as long as the discussion does, and that's where you all come in.

If you have anything to say about any of these Pokemon, please post about them! It doesn't matter if you've used them or have just faced them in battle, anything is fine (but please, do try them). Just be sure to back up your posts with good competitive reasoning, such as damage calculations! Posting replays showcasing the pokemon you selected is especially encouraged.

Be open-minded, don't just say something is terrible and walk away; at least look into them and see what options they may be able to utilize!

Feel free to theorymon, but make it clear that you are theorymon'ing. At the end of the week, however, I want discussion to move towards how useful the Pokemon actually are in DW, and what sets are effective on them.

Just because an analysis has been done for a Pokemon doesn't mean there isn't more to explore; it's quite possible that something might have gone unnoticed or is missing.

Do not post in this thread complaining about the Pokemon I choose and/or suggesting ones we should do for future weeks. I want discussion to stay on topic about the three Pokemon we are "researching". Feel free to VM / PM me these suggestions, but don't expect the next research week to have all the Pokemon you suggested, or any of them.

​

So, the three Pokemon we will be looking at this research week are Hydreigon, Mew, and Gyarados.

||
​

How useful are these Pokemon in Dream World? What sets can they run effectively? What gives them trouble? What advantages do they have over other Pokemon? What roles can they fill in teams? Are they worth the team slot on your team or is it outclassed?

Discuss; the discussion that come out of this will surely be illuminating! Don't forget, you're not just limited to this topic to discuss these Pokemon. The #dw irc channel is a perfectly suitable place to discuss them as well. Feel free to take the discussion to #pokemon as well. At the end of the discussion period, hope we can reach a general consensus on how good these Pokemon really are, and that we might find some interesting discoveries.

Alright, now that that's out of the way we can get to the fun part of this. First up, Reasearch Week will now have a duration of roughly two weeks. The reason for this is as follows:

The Research Week Challenge:

Users will use one of the research week mons on their team

The user(s) that have peaked at #1 with a 1600+ rating before the end of the two week period will get temporary status (hops) in #dw

Users will be expected to post their experiences with the pokemon they use, the teams they used, the problems they encoutered while trying to make the said pokemon work.

If a user does not participate in the discussion, they will be passed over.

​

The first week of the challenge will be open for initial speculation on how one of the Research Week Pokemon will fare, previous experience with the Pokemon, or even just to say that you will be participating in the ladder challenge and on what alt (mandatory, new alts are required). The second week is where I expect the main discussion to occur and to heat up. This is when you can post battle logs, experiences with your team on the ladder and generally how a Pokemon has worked out for you. A general format while signing-up may look something like this:

Remember, if you are peak at #1 on the ladder before the end of the round with at least a 1600 rating you will get temporary hops in #dw, which can become permanent depending on your track record. (If you already have hops+ we'll work something out) Other possible rewards may include a Custom Title and larger avatar for winning significant amount of RW Challenges. Furthermore, quality posting may be rewarded with the above rewards, even if you did not win the challenge. So get out and post!

This Research Week will be over tomorrow. I am looking forward to reading your guys experiences with Gyarados, Mew and Hydregion. Please post them as soon as possible and get a discussion started. You can do this by posting battle logs, experiences with your team on the ladder and generally how a Pokemon has worked out for you.

I used Gyarados in conjunction with a Hone Claws Dugtrio. Dugtrio means no player worth their salt will use a Scarfed Genesect's Thunderbolt against Gyarados, vastly increasing its ability to set up. If they do go for the low-hanging fruit of Gyarados with their Genesect, a +6 Dugtrio more than makes up for the loss of your sweeper. I have to say though, BulkyGyara takes hits like a champ, and with 245 Speed, outspeeds and OHKOs Scarf Genesect after 2 Dances. He also can revenge kill +0 excadrill even after Stealth Rock damage, which was pretty impressive. I used taunt, although I can certainly see the appeal of Substitute; Scald was incredibly aggravating. That being said, being able to deal with skarmory was more than worth it. Moxie works wonderfully, of course, because barring a few pokemon, a +2 attack/ +1 Speed Gyarados can barrel through entire teams with Waterfall and Bounce.

CB Gyarados is an unexpected and very potent threat under the rain. For example, today I 2HKOed Amoonguss in rain with Waterfall and no hazards. It hits that hard. It also OHKOes 252 HP Tyranitar with Waterfall a large percentage of the time, making it a powerful asset for rain teams to deal with the omnipresent sand. Unlike many people think, I use Intimidate over Moxie. Gyarados already has the power to 2HKO or OHKO everything it needs, and with that weakness to Electric and Excadrill and stuff that can take advantage of its Rock-type weakness, it doesn't stay in long enough to use the Moxie boost. Intimidate, on the other hand, gives it plenty of opportunities to switch in, especially on Scizor and the like.